namibia and south africa 2003
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This was my my second trip to sub-saharan africa. After much planning we decided to fly into Windhoek, Namibia's capitol via Cape Town, where we met up with our Wildlife Adventures truck, along with our five fellow travellers and Zimbabwean crew, Stanley our leader and Sila our driver. This made for a very uncrowed truck since it could take 20 plus passengers. From here we travelled through, what must be, one of the driest countries in the world.
namibia weeks 1 and 2
Clockwise: Angela on Dune 45 then Sesriem Gorge both Namib Naukluft Desert, Fur Seal Cape Cross and Quadbiking near Swakopmund on the coast
Our trip took us to Sesriem and down through the amazing sandunes of the Namib Naukluft Desert where we camped for a couple of nights. We lay awake listening to the sounds of jackels, springbok and goodness knows what roaming the camp, mysterious shadows passing the door to our tent. We woke early on the second day (I mean early!), to wait in the freezing cold for the park gates to open. Then a short trip to Dune 45 one of the park's higher sand dunes, reputedly the highest in the world. Here dozens of bleery eyed tourists climbed through the dry air to the top of one of the higher dunes where we sat waiting for the sunrise. We were also kept entertained by Jean, who sang us french songs as we drive to the dunes. After a day walking the desert in Sossusvlei, we travelled down to the coast, stopping at the german styled seaside resort of Swakopmund, where we spend a day quadbiking. Not only was it the only way to sea the desert properly but was also great fun, despite both me and Angela burning our trousers on the exhausts! From here we headed to the Cape Cross seal colony (pong), with it's tens of thousands of seals, to the sunbaked north western corner of Namibia, via the rock engravings at Twyfelfontein.
Following our trouble with the truck crossing the Namib Desert (the transmission broke), we managed to get bogged down in the campsite at Twyfelfontein, but eventually dig ourselves out (see above). Then after a night of camping amongst the palms in Sessfontein we visited a local school before making our way north the incredibly hot Opuwo just south of the Angolan border. We hurridly put our tents up, before heading into town for a much needed beer.
Above: Himba children hide from the sun as the tourists get baked alive.
Left: Camu, our local guide having a joke with the chief's husband. Yes the chief of the tribe was a woman!
The following morning we visited a local Himba tribe. They are famous for covering their skin in the ocra paste, used as both makeup and much need protection from the sun. They spend several weeks a year digging and crushing the rocks - very hard work no doubt. We then spent the afternoon sheltering from the sun (goodness knows how hot this place gets in the summer), before visiting a second local tribe, who fled wartorn Angola about 50 years ago. They seems much happier with life and hadn't had their way of life ruined by westernisation, unlike many of the Himba. We then headed towards Etosha, stopping overnight near Kamanjab at the Otjitotongwe Cheetah Park. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the tour, superb facilities and a fascinating insight into not only cheetahs but the politics involved in animal conservation. The park is home to 5 "tame" cheetahs and a dozen or so wild cheetahs free to roam in a huge fenced compounds of several hectares each. They were all rescued from farms, where they are unfortunately seen as vermen. With only about 8000 cheetahs alive in the wild and a third living in Namibia, it seems odd that farmers now only have two choices. They can either shoot the captured cheetahs or release them, thereby allowing them to continue to kill more valuable stock. The park cannot officially take any captured cheetahs from farmers, since this is banned by law, as is exporting the cheetahs abroad to zoos - crazy!
We then drove the short distance to Etosha, one of the best game parks in Southern Africa. We camped right next to waterhole and saw several black rhino on the first evening, along with lions, hyena, jackels, zebra, oryx (gemsbok), springbok, elephants, impala, giraffes - you name it we saw them! Our final night was spent in Waterburg National Park, as huge park right on the edge of what appeared to be a break in the earths crust, the campsite at the bottom of a cliff which separated two plateau. There we saw our first of many rock dassies (hyrax) and some klifspringers, tiny antelope no bigger than a dog. Then a night in Windhoek before heading to Cape Town, for the next part of our adventure.
Quiver Tree, Cheetah in Otjitotongwe, Angela next to a termite mound in Waterburg and Elephants at Etosha
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